Shadow Puppets
by BlinkingAngel
Summary: Making shadow puppets with one's hands is a fun past time. Of course, they're just shadows, what is there to be afraid of? I bet many of you can see where I'm going with this.
1. Night

**A/N: I unfortunately do not own the genius that is Doctor Who, no copyright infringement intended.**

"But mum!" a little boy whined.

"Now don't put up a fight," his mother responded. "It's getting late."

The child huffed and dragged himself to his darkened room. He crawled under the sheets and stared out the window, willing the velvety night sky to lighten the trees just outside. He had always been afraid of the dark, as was expected of a five old child. His mother, however, had shown him how the shadows could come alive and be beautiful. He looked to the hallway when he heard footsteps, seeing there his mum walking towards his door.

"Once more," she said in resignation when she reached the threshold, leaning on the door frame. "But you have to promise to go to sleep."

The boy smiled and sat up eagerly as she came to sit with him on the full-sized bed. He pulled the small, red torch from under his pillow and directed it at the pale blue wall opposite of the window. He saw tiny specks of dust floating through the thin beam.

His mother pulled up the sleeves of her sweat shirt and pushed her short, brunette hair behind her ears. She grinned slightly and contorted both of her hands into a very realistic dove, perched on the night table against the wall. She made it fly around the room and the child followed her hands with the small torch, grinning and giggling as his mum made the black dove do acrobatics across his ceiling.

After a few minutes, when she noticed the boy let a yawn escape, the mother fluttered her hands down to perch the bird back on the night table. Her son switched off the torch and tucked it back under his pillow, leaving his room in the dim light coming from the night light next to the doorway.

The woman stood and kissed her son on the forehead. "Goodnight" she whispered just before closing the door.

The boy once again curled up in the blankets. Though this time, rather than staring at the dark trees outside his window, he looked to the table on the opposite wall.

A pitch black dove sat upon his wall, as if it was perched on the table. Just a dark silohuette against the dim light in the rest of the room. It cocked its shadowy head and fluttered its inky wings, clumsily trying to lift itself up the wall. It hopped a few times and took off as far as the ceiling before falling back to the ground. The little boy watched with amusement until he could no longer stay awake. He slowly closed his eyes, having no fear of the dove trying to fly. He knew that it would soon fade — as it did every night — until his mother brought it to life again.

**A/N2: Yes, I know it's very short. Get used to chapters like this from me. I'm planning on posting short-ish chapters on a regular basis. You can count on a chapter at least once a week, I promise not to keep you waiting too long. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think! Thanks for reading!**


	2. House Call

**A/N: Sorry it took me a bit longer than promised, busy week. But here it is. Enjoy!**

**Also, unfortunately, I do not own Doctor Who.**

The TARDIS gave a small jolt. The Doctor whirled around to the monitor, trying to see where — and when — she was taking him now.

"Earth, twenty-first century," he muttered to himself. "Go figure."

The Time Lord continued to run around the console, re-directing the TARDIS to the new course. When she landed, The Doctor slowly sauntered out the door, hands in the pockets of his long coat. He found himself standing in front of a small house.

He dug through his impossibly deep pockets until he found the device he was looking for. He stared at it and started to approach the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rena had always been quite skilled in making shapes with her hands. Shadow puppets. Her favorite was the dove because it was beautiful. A graceful white bird, represented by a black silhouette and given its grace by her own skill. A bird that conveyed a message of peace, ousting fear. This is why she showed it to Trevor most, she thought that he may grow fond of it as Rena herself had as a child.

There was something, however, that bothered her. She knew that it was ridiculous, but she always had the strangest feeling that she was not in control, like the black bird moved itself. Even tonight, she could have sworn that she caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye as she left the room. But what harm could a shadow do?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, Trevor came into the kitchen rubbing his eyes. Rena smiled brightly and started to pour him a bowl of cereal.

"Good morning," she said.

"G'morning." The boy plopped into a chair at the circular kitchen table.

"Did you feed Herald?" Rena asked, referring to the fat, orange gerbil that Trevor insisted on keeping by his bed.

"Yes, mum." He responded, almost irritated because she asked every morning.

"Alright. How did you sleep?" she slid the bowl in front of him.

"Great," Trevor responded with a sleepy grin. "She's almost flying now!" he added excitedly, digging into his cereal.

"What is, dear?" Rena asked conversationally, assuming that he was talking about a dream.

"Why, the dove of course!" the boy responded with a small giggle.

"Oh, you dreamt about the dove?" His mother asked, now a bit confused.

"No," Trevor said, now also confused as to why his mum would not understand. "She almost reached the ceiling this time."

Rena was about to respond when there was a knock at the door.

She walked briskly as the quick rapping continued. She unbolted the door and opened it quickly so as to stop the noise. She was met with a tall, rather interesting looking man. He wore a long, brown trench coat, a brown pinstripe suit, and beige sneakers. His hair stuck out of his scalp haphazardly and a pair of rectangular glasses sat precariously on his nose. The most interesting thing, however, was the mass of metal and wires that he held in front of him with the hand not still looking for the door. He looked up from the device.

"'Ello!" the strange man said, quickly flashing her a large smile. "Can I come in?" he asked, already walking past Rena and into the sitting room.

Rena closed and re-bolted the door, turning to see the man wandering around the room swinging the device around. "Excuse me, who are you?" she asked, almost angrily. "And what are you doing here?" When he didn't respond, Rena strode across the small room, plucked the odd device out if his hands, and plopped it onto the table, forcing him to turn and face her.

"Right, yes, sorry, manners. I'm the Doctor." he said quickly.

"The Doctor, huh? Any real name?" she asked, putting a fist on her hip and raising an eyebrow, refusing to take her eyes off the man.

"Just the Doctor." He removed and folded the glasses, which he obviously didn't need. "And who are you?"

"Rena Asher. Now you didn't answer my question, why are you here? And it's hardly polite to barge into someone's house uninvited."

The Doctor then scrunched up his face in worry. He picked up his device off of the coffee table and lowered himself to the couch behind him, elbows on his knees. He sat like that for a second before looking up at Rena with suddenly serious eyes. "I'm here to save your lives." he said.

But of course, being the Doctor, he could never leave anything that simple. He sprung up from the couch, contraption in hand, and continued to quickly walk around the room, all the while still talking.

"Because, you see, this house is giving off hundreds of times more energy than it should be. And if it's just the two of you here," he stopped walking and turned to look at Rena seriously, "then where's all of that energy coming from?"

Rena assumed that this question was rhetorical, but she could not help but wonder.

"Well what do you think?" she asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

"Not a clue, but if the TARDIS didn't just take me here by chance — which almost never happens — then I suspect alien activity."

Listening to the Doctor's ramblings, Rena realized that she had just let a complete stranger into her house, with her son sitting just in the kitchen. On top of it, said stranger was now talking nonsense.

"Well you know what I think?" Rena asked rhetorically. The Doctor responded by slightly lifting his chin to acknowledge the statement. "I think that you're a complete nutter!" the Doctor looked taken aback. He started backing up as the woman stepped slowly towards him, menacing despite her diminutive stature.

Rena continued walking forward, forcing him to back out the door. "You practically broke into my home and now you start talking like a madman! I want you out of this house as soon as possible. By my watch, that would be now."

Just before Rena could slam the door in his face, a light behind her flickered just for a second. The Doctor looked over the woman's shoulder curiously.

"All right," he said, turning back to Rena, "I'll go now, but if you need me — when you need me — just look for a blue box, I won't be far." He glanced back to the light. "Oh, and I'd leave lights on tonight, especially in junior's bedroom."

With that, Rena finally slammed the door in his face. She turned and massaged her temples, slowly making her way back to the kitchen.

"Who was that, mum?" Trevor called from where he still sat.

"It was no one." she said hastily. "Nothing you should worry yourself about."

**A/N2: Thank you for reading! Again, look forward to another chapter in about a week. Please review!**


	3. The Doctor Is In

**A/N: Hello and welcome to chapter three! Since I forgot before, the Doctor's timeline is between 'Last of the Time Lords' and 'Partners in Crime', meaning that there is no companion. I just find the extra character difficult to write in while keeping everyone in character. I'd rather have one less character than be OOC.  
>Anyways, enjoy! I do not own Doctor Who.<br>**  
>Rena couldn't lie to herself completely, that 'Doctor' did scare her a bit. Even so, she was not about to take the advice of a random stranger who appeared to be mad.<p>

After the nightly tradition of her hands and listening to her son giggle himself to sleep, Rena made a point of flipping the light switch next to the doorway.

Rena woke with a start to a shrill shriek. She jumped out of bed, all tiredness forgotten, and quickly crossed the short hall to Trevor's bedroom.

When she flung open the door, Rena saw her son standing in front of Herald's empty cage. He had his hands over his mouth and a tear hanging on his cheek.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" she asked, going over to the boy to comfort him.

"He's dead!" Trevor exclaimed, lifting a shaky finger to the cage. Upon further inspection, Rena saw that the cage was not, in fact, empty. In the corner lay what must have once been the plump orange gerbil. She gasped at the sight, for all that was left was a pile of bones, each stripped clean.

Rena nudged Trevor away from the sight and into the kitchen, muttering about how everything was going to be fine. There was a knock at the door. Several knocks, to be more accurate. A familiar quick rapping on the wood.

Rena poured her son a glass of water, both in effort to calm him and to stall answering the insistent knocking.

Rena left Trevor at the kitchen table to answer the door. She stood in front of the entrance for a second with a hand on the knob. She sighed before unbolting the lock and swinging open the door. Not surprisingly, there stood the same odd man. The madman, the nutter, the 'Doctor'.

Rena decided that she did not need to deal with a madman as well as a hysterical child and a dead gerbil. As the man opened his mouth to undoubtedly go on a rant/lecture, Rena cupped her hand over his lips, stopping him short.

"Now I've had quite enough today, sir, and it's barely eight in the morning. Now, of course, you show up. You seem to know so much and manage to arrive at the very minute things go weird. If I didn't know any better, I may blame you for any oddities going on. Now you have exactly thirty seconds to turn around and go back to where you came from or say something to gain my trust. Go." satisfied, Rena released the Doctor's jaw.

"Good morning to you too." the Doctor said, massaging his chin. "Alright!" he said energetically, trying to enter the sitting room only to be blocked by Rena's arm. He stepped back slowly, looking the tall woman in the eye, now stony and serious. "I'm not sure exactly what is happening, but I can assure you that I am not mad and I need you to understand that before I continue."

Rena nodded, somehow not able to stop listening to him at that moment. Something about his posture and expression gave him an air of authority.

The Doctor seemed pleased with that. He shoved his hands into his long, brown trench coat and leant a bit forward. He glanced around as if telling a secret. "I suspect aliens." he said simply, completely serious. He relaxed a bit, leaning back to a reasonable distance. "Now, I've dealt with this kind of thing many times before and I know what I'm doing. Well, sort of. But the point is that I can help. So, Rena Asher, do you trust me?"

Rena just stared for a moment then broke a smile, biting her lip to stop herself from breaking out into laughter. "I was right." she said, letting a small giggle loose. "You're insane! There's no such thing as aliens!"

The Doctor grabbed her shoulders to control her a bit. "Oh, but you couldn't be more wrong! Of every planet in every galaxy, you really believe that you're the only life?"

This sobered Rena. She looked back at his eyes—now looking less like a maniac's and more like those of a wise old man, full of knowledge and experience— and listened intently. He released her shoulders and continued animatedly, "This tiny planet whirling around one small star is hardly a speck of dust compared to the whole of the universe. All of those billions upon billions of planets. The universe is overwhelmingly full of life. I've seen it, I walk with the aliens every day. Trust me, I'm the Doctor."

Rena stood there thinking for a minute that was so loaded with tension it seemed to stretch for days. Finally, she stepped to the side, letting the Doctor in.

**A/N2: Thank you for reading and I hope you're enjoying it so far! To all of the silent readers (people who read/favorite/story alert without commenting), I really want to know what you think! Even if you don't have an account, leave an anonymous review. I absolutely love to hear from you (I get a message on my cell phone every time I get a review, so because of FF I now get overly excited every time I have an e-mail) so please tell me what you think; what I did well on and what needs work.  
>Alright, I'm finished with my rant now. Thank you for taking the time to read my story and ramblings. To quote bandnerd21 (go and read her stuff by the way): "go forth and readwrite/create/be amazing!"**


	4. Monsters

**A/N: Okay, I know that this is really late considering my original promise to update once a week. Sorry, but here it is. Enjoy! I do not own Doctor Who.**

"So you said that you were already fed up this morning. What seems to be the problem?"

Rena plopped onto the sofa and ran a hand through her hair in exasperation. "Well first of all, there's you. Barging into my home and talking like a madman. Then I wake up and my six-year-old is hysterical because his gerbil is dead. And of course now—"

The Doctor cut her off, "Waitwaitwait, back up a bit. Dead gerbil?"

"Not just dead," Rena said, "come here." She stood and walked to Trevor's bedroom. The Doctor followed after her. When he caught up, Rena was standing in front of a wire cage in a light blue bedroom obviously belonging to her son. Rena was purposely not looking at the cage. "Trevor saw it this morning. Probably going to feed him."

The Doctor walked slowly across the room. When he got closer, he saw that in the corner, perhaps where an animal might have been, was a pile of bones. The Doctor immediately produced an odd cylindrical object from his pocket. He held it towards the once-Herald pile and it emitted a blue light and high pitched buzzing. When the noise stopped, the Doctor held the device in front of his face, as if getting information from it.

"Umm what's that?" Rena asked.

"Sonic screwdriver." the Doctor said, not looking up. He proceeded to inspect the room oddly. He shone the object under the bed, under the night table, behind the dresser; anywhere a shadow was cast. He stopped when he got to the small closet. Instead of opening it, the Doctor ran the device along the crease between the two sliding doors. "Oh you've got some cowboys in here." he glanced back at Rena, clarifying, "not actual cowboys," looking back to the closet, "though that can happen."

"Well what's going on?" Rena asked. "Do you know?"

"Oh yes," he said. "I know it, I've just never seen them before."

"Them? As in more than one living thing? In my son's closet?"

The Doctor picked up on the tinge of fear in her voice. He looked at her and again Rena noticed the wisdom in his eyes. "Almost every creature in the universe has a seemingly irrational fear of the dark. Except it's not of the dark, the fear is of what lurks in it. Infinitely tiny creatures that look like shadows, little piranhas in the air. Ms. Asher, I'm sorry, but there are Vashta Nerada in your son's closet.

**A/N2: Yes, I know it's disappointingly short especially considering how long I made you wait. Sorry. I just really had to post, I felt bad. I was suffering from Lazy Character Syndrome (otherwise known to sane people as writer's block). Anyways, please please please please please please please please please review! Thanks for reading!**


	5. Finality

**A/N: after a far-too-long wait, it is finally done! I present to you the final chapter of Shadow Puppets! Enjoy!**

**I do not own Doctor Who.**

"You say that as if I should know what it means" Rena said under her breath.

The Doctor answered anyway. "It means that there's a swarm of flesh eating aliens living in this room." he started to talk to himself, "They likely came from that tree outside the window. But what I don't understand is: why now? They've obviously been here for a long time, so why choose to attack now? It's a relatively small swarm too, so. It wouldn't be able to travel very well unless it was given a shape. It would look like a very dark shadow, moves on its own accord..." he trailed off.

Rena's whole body went tense. She folded her arms and turned away with her head down. The Doctor stepped in front of her, "what's wrong?"

"The dove," she said, pushing a chunk of short brown hair behind her ear.

"Ah, yes. The dove. Of course. What dove?"

"It-it's just this thing that Trevor loves," Rena stammered, "a shadow puppet – a-a dove. He's been telling me how it's learning to fly." her sentence faded into a sob. "can it do anything to him?"

The Doctor looked down at his shoes, "I'm afraid so," he said. His head shot up as if with a sudden realization, "that is, of course, unless we get to them first."

Rena peeked up at his sly grin from under her bangs, "what do you suggest we do?"

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm going to talk to them." With that, the Doctor strode to the closet and spoke at the door, rather loudly, "I request audience with the Vashta Nerada taking residence in this home."

After a short pause, a dove silhouette came out from the crack underneath the closet door and projected itself on the wood. Rena's head shot up when she saw the familiar dove moving on it's own. She straightened took a step back.

Apparently, the Doctor took their appearance as a response, because he gave a slight nod and continued, "Under convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation, I hereby order you to leave this Human residence."

If Rena wasn't shocked already, she sure was now. Her eyes bulged and she took another wary step away when she herd a deep voice emit from her shadowy dove. "where would you have us go?" it said, shrinking and becoming darker still, as if threatened.

The Doctor stood his ground, " I don't care where you go, but you can't stay here. I can help you, relocate you to a new planet."

The shadow spoke again "And how do you suggest to do that?"

"My ship is just outside, I could take you there in no time."

"How do we know that you aren't lying to get us to leave?"

"If I'm lying, then you are free to come back here and feed on whatever you like. But I have a place in mind, a dark moon just outside the Fentre system. So, do we have a deal?"

There was a long stretch of tense silence, then, "Yes, we will come with you."

Rena let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding and the Doctor, after a quick "thank you", turned to face her. "have you got an empty jar?"

...

After a few minutes, the Doctor and Rena were standing outside his 'ship', which appeared to be an odd phone booth. The Doctor had in tow a glass jar with blacked out sides.

"I can't thank you enough, Doctor," Rena said.

"No problem," the Time Lord responded, "it's what I'm here for."

"Well thank you anyway." Rena folded her arms and looked down, trying to decide proper phrasing. She settled on blunt and simple: "What are you?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Well you're obviously not human, judging by how much you knew exactly what to do. Plus, with what you told me, I'm open to whatever surprise you have up your sleeves."

"Time Lord," the Doctor said simply.

"Alright then. Well goodbye and thank you."

Now it was the Doctor's turn to seem awkward, "Of course, I mean if you'd like to, you could always come with me." more confidently, "I could show you all of the universe's wonders. It's just in here." he said, patting his box.

She wanted to, with all her heart, but she knew that she couldn't just leave. "That's very generous of you, but I have to stay here and take care of Trevor."

The Doctor looked slightly dejected, but finally looked down at the jar he held and remembered his own responsibilities. "Alright," he said and turned to open the door to the box. "Goodbye Rena Asher."

"Goodbye Doctor. Thank you for everything."

With a smile and not another word, the Doctor stepped into his box. Rena watched in awe as it faded out of sight, and she never saw that strange, mysterious, genius, mad, wonderful man again.

**A/N2: Finally done! I hope everyone enjoyed riding along with my insanity. Please REVIEW. Loves and digital cookies!**

**-BAngel**


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